From ignorance to bliss, I’m on my way to exploring, appreciating, and understanding coffee. Learning to process coffee has played a monumental role in deepening my understanding & love for coffee. For the prelude, check this out.
When at the coffee plantation, I had plucked the alluring coffee cherries that were abundantly spread across the plantation. And now was the time to put them to some good use - by starting the preparation to make a cup of coffee from scratch! As rosy as it sounds, it was an ordeal in itself. Here’s an account of the entire adventure, some parts in words, some in pictures!
Step 0 - [Try to avoid this step] Firstly, I lay attractive coffee cherries in the Sun, aesthetically with some raw black pepper around them. It only looks good - did so much harm to the coffee lol. Mind you, the pepper climber acts as a pesticide for coffee plants, not the raw fruits literally. But I still lay them together in 1 plate.
Never put your coffee cherries in the sunlight, because mine started catching fungus.
Step 1 - Luckily I spotted the issue immediately & worked on restoring them. Cleaned them well & soaked them in water for about 12 hours.
Step 2 - After they were nice & plump, it was time to peel them off & expose the beans. I did not have the patience to manually peel each one of the cherries, so I used a classic belan from my desi kitchen. I rolled it over the cherries multiple times till the beans were separated from the outer cover.
Step 3 - The beans, as they came out of the cover were extremely slimy 😩 so I washed them a couple of times & soaked the beans again, for over 48 hours.
This is where I was completely unaware of the different ways of coffee processing. I was just doing what seemed the easiest.
Step 4 - After 48 hours of soaking, I drained the slimy water. I then put them to dry in my balcony - finally! I let them dry in sunlight for about a week. Because I was too lazy (& busy) to take on the next steps.
💡From all the knowledge I’d acquired about “coffee processing at home”, step 3 & 4 were the obvious steps for me. Soon enough I found out that this is also known as the Washed Method of Processing Coffee - which is used to remove fruity pulp & flavour from coffee. I never intended to strip the beans off their natural fruity, sweet pulp but did end up doing that. The (not so bad) consequences of which, I’d face later.
Step 5 - Then I took the dried beans home (BLR -> BOM), for me & my mom to finally peel their 1st hard cover off. [You can skip the travel part if you have the patience & energy to do it without a trusted companion]
👀 Oh, and did I mention that I did the whole processing separately for Arabica & Robusta because I wanted to try, test & taste their difference myself? I’m proud of my patience at this point.
Step 6 - My mom & I peeled the coffee beans for 3 nights, devoting >1 hr each night 🥱
It was a time consuming & effort intensive process, where both of us, even though extremely tired from the day, kept each other up & repeated “trust the process”. As a result of the hard work we put in, we were blessed with some beautiful green coffee beans!
Step 7 - Roasting!! It was D-day - finally the time had come to roast them!! I had not felt the essence or aroma of coffee yet, till this step. So I had very less expectations in general.
We originally intended to do a medium-light roast, but guess what? Within 3mins of roasting the beans, they started popping (like popcorn) & soon enough the entire house started smelling like coffee. We instantly knew we’d need to be careful, & ended up doing a medium-dark roast.
I kid you not when I say the entire house was infused with the aroma of coffee - we had to switch on exhaust & open all windows. Because it was 11 PM when we did this & we wanted to sleep after that. But the aroma of coffee didn’t let us. So be cautious.
Step 8 - Grind the coffee & savour as you like it!
Results & the final verdict!!
I brewed my coffee with my simple filter paper & sieve method, and oh my God the caffeine 💀
I took 30% Robusta & 70% Arabica, still the coffee I made was more than just a little harsh, with pretty high acidity and a strong undertone of earthiness. I by now knew that this was primarily because of my way of processing (extra washed, which removed any sweet & fruity flavours) and the kind of roast we ended up doing - medium-dark.
To balance the acidity & reduce the harshness, I learnt & understood the types of extraction
Additionally, I ordered some ground chicory powder to adulterate my coffee with 😬. I then also prepared cold brew - which was nothing less than perfect because it balanced all the bitterness, harshness & acidity!! I love how it turned out.
This, my friends was my journey from appreciation to almost obsession with coffee. ☕
Btw, if you’re into coffee - here’s a blog I’ve recently been reading.